THE FRENZY
by Francesca Lia Block
Published September 28th 2010 by HarperTeen
Hardcover, 272 pages
Placement in the Pile: Middle of the Stack
Summary:
When she was thirteen, something terrifying and mysterious happened to Liv that she still does not understand, and now, four years later, her dark secret threatens to tear her apart from her family and her true love.
Review:
There is a lot of competition in the YA Paranormal romance genre, especially when it comes to werewolves. This was a little bit of a different take on the myth, but overall, it wasn't one of my favorites.
The first quarter of the book kept bouncing us back and forth between present time and flashbacks, which got confusing at times. Then the rest of the book was fairly good, but it felt like a lot of the tension was contrived by the MC refusing to ask questions or seeking out the answers, even though she knew where to find them, or willfully withholding information from the reader, just to force us to keep guessing. There were a few plot points that I thought were very interesting and would have liked expanded (but I don't want to be spoilery by saying which ones).
I did have some questions that were never answered that didn't make a lot of sense, too though. For example, why does her mom like to go hunting wolves? She's this perfectly put together woman who wears high heels around the house to "work her calf muscles" and we're supposed to just accept it as nothing strange that she would have her father take her up in a helicopter to go shoot down wolves on the snow, or go in the woods to go hunting. That didn't fit for me at all.
So, overall this was a fun and easy read, just not quite up to par with other YA paranormal books I've read. But give it a try yourself, maybe you'll like it better than I did.
*P.S. this one was e-mailed to me by Guinevere, who didn't have time to put it in the layout. So I'm posting it. ;)
Review:
There is a lot of competition in the YA Paranormal romance genre, especially when it comes to werewolves. This was a little bit of a different take on the myth, but overall, it wasn't one of my favorites.
The first quarter of the book kept bouncing us back and forth between present time and flashbacks, which got confusing at times. Then the rest of the book was fairly good, but it felt like a lot of the tension was contrived by the MC refusing to ask questions or seeking out the answers, even though she knew where to find them, or willfully withholding information from the reader, just to force us to keep guessing. There were a few plot points that I thought were very interesting and would have liked expanded (but I don't want to be spoilery by saying which ones).
I did have some questions that were never answered that didn't make a lot of sense, too though. For example, why does her mom like to go hunting wolves? She's this perfectly put together woman who wears high heels around the house to "work her calf muscles" and we're supposed to just accept it as nothing strange that she would have her father take her up in a helicopter to go shoot down wolves on the snow, or go in the woods to go hunting. That didn't fit for me at all.
So, overall this was a fun and easy read, just not quite up to par with other YA paranormal books I've read. But give it a try yourself, maybe you'll like it better than I did.
*P.S. this one was e-mailed to me by Guinevere, who didn't have time to put it in the layout. So I'm posting it. ;)
2 comments:
In general, I don't *get* FLB, so I read reviews of her newer books with interest. Sounds like believability is still an issue...
Marcia, I read one of her books of poetry and reviewed it a while ago. I would have to agree. I didn't know what to think of it in the end. Some of it was poignant for the modern teenage girl, some was fantasy and some was just kinda crass. I didn't get it.
So I was really interested in what my co-blogger thought of one of her novels (that the book premise and cover made me interested in). In the end it sounds like there were still issues in this format. Maybe her stuff is just beyond me?
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